Rudolph

It’s Christmas time once again. Here at Infinite Hollywood, we love Christmas. So today I’m taking a look at some of the holiday Pop vinyls from Funko. These came out last year, but I only managed to review the Bumble last year, so this year I wanted to get the rest of the crew. They made quite a few different Christmas vinyls based on the old Rankin-Bass animated movies, but they only made 3 Rudolph characters. Rudolph, Santa Claus and the Bumble.

Of course this year, they’ve added Yukon Cornelius, Hermie and the Misfit Elephant to the mix. Maybe we’ll review those next year! Anyway, here’s Rudolph himself! Just in time to lead Santa through a foggy Christmas Eve.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! So although I didn’t get everything up (stay tuned tomorrow for the 12th Day of Gamera!) we did get quite a few things up this holiday season. We’ll conclude with an old favorite, the Bumble!

We’ve reviewed Bumble Mugs and Bumble Action Figures in years past, but when I saw the Funko Pop holiday characters, I knew I had to have the Bumble. While all the characters look nice, the Bumble is clearly the best and most popular. Target had these for only $5, but good luck finding the “Bumble” Abominable Snow Monster, as I had to drive all around to find this little guy.Packaging:
In the world of designer vinyl, the package is very important. Even in these little mass market vinyl pieces, packages can be important and I’m quite fond of this one, actually.

The designs are nice and simple, but there’s a fun little cartoon Bumble on the front. Along with a nice big window for the character himself.

The side has the full picture, along with a bright red banner and the number of this piece.

The back is more of the same, but it shows off the rest of the Rudolph series. Oddly enough it doesn’t show the other holiday figures, which include the Misers.

I love that the Bumble’s head keeps peeking out from different spots, like Kilroy or something.

Sculpt/Paint:
The sculpt here is adorable, with a cute little stylized Bumble. Of all the Rudolph designs, this one translates the best. Rudolph didn’t look so hot. The Bumble just works, though.

He’s pretty small, at around 3.75 inches or so. He makes the perfect desktop trinket or minature Christmas decoration. This is good for people who love toys or those who aren’t even action figure fans, but love the character.

I’ve heard lots of bad things about Funko’s products, especially as it relates to paint. Mine is pretty good, with only a little of the paint rubbing off the back of his head. It’s no major issue, but you might want to look at a few in hand. I think the paint on the face and details is pretty sharp and the quality on the vinyl seems nice.

Articulation:
He has a single cut at the neck. Thankfully although this is designed like a bobblehead, it’s not a bobblehead.

I really wish he had arm cuts as well, but perhaps in the future Funko can add those in. As is, it’s not much, but it’s a nice static item.

Accessories:
Nothing.

Value:
Target has these for around $5, which isn’t a bad price at all. They’re hidden in the holiday stocking stuffer section and I noticed that many Targets don’t carry them. Only some. That said, I’m glad the price on these holiday Vinyl Pop figures isn’t that much. The regular Vinly Pop figures gor for $10 each and they’re clearly not worth that. I don’t feel bad dropping a Lincoln on this little Bumble though.

I love the Bumble, so this guy gets an easy pass with me. I’d say he’s about an 8 for what he is. Certainly this is no action figure, but he’s really cool sitting here on the desk and he’s just so darned cute. The others just aren’t as nice as this one. That said, I wouldn’t pay more than $8 for this guy, tops.

Although Mickey’s Christmas Carol is one of my favorite Christmas Holiday specials, my absolute favorite goes to Rudolph by Rankin-Bass. My favorite character in that special is the Abominable Snowman, known as the Bumble. My GF bought me this Rudolph Hot Cocoa set because it had the Bumble on it, so I thought I’d give a brief summary of the set.

The packaging is actually quite nice, with pictures of Rudolph and his main squeeze Clarice on the side. Inside each package has a character, like Santa or Sam the Snowman. It’s a fun design.

The two mugs are identical, featuring Rudolph on one side and the Bumble on the other. They’re basic coffee mugs, but don’t feel cheap by any means.

Ah the Abominable Snowman, infamous monster of intrigue and even more infamous as the “Bumble” from the classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer 1967 TV Special. Of all the holiday specials, this old time retelling of Rudolph’s origin from Rankin/Bass remains one of my favorites. It was no doubt my favorite Christmas special when I was a kid.

It seems that all the best holiday toys were made by companies that no longer exist. Yesterday it was Palisades and today it’s Playing Mantis. Playing Mantis really started the holiday toy craze and if it wasn’t for them Forever Fun wouldn’t have the grip on the market they do today. I believe Forever Fun still produces this figure, but he’s not single carded and I never see anything but the “Humble” Bumble after Yukon Cornelius has pulled out all his teeth.

Packaging:

Even though I’ve had this guy for years now, I’ve kept the original packaging. The reason for that is because this guy was a real elusive mystery for me for many years. I tried valiantly to find him but never had any luck.

I even had my GF try to get it for me for Christmas. She couldn’t find this Bumble either, but she did end up getting me a Bobble-Bumble which was pretty cool. Until one day I walked into a K*B Toys Outlet center and there he was… And he was only $5! I still to this day don’t know why I didn’t buy 10 of this guy.

Articulation:The articulation on this guy isn’t super impressive, but it’s still quite good for what he needs it for. His head, arms and legs are all cuts. They don’t have a super range of movement because he’s covered in fur, but he can still hit his couple of trademark poses.

Sculpt:Everything about the Rankin/Bass design is here and present in perfect accuracy. This figure looks just like the Bumble, which is good because some of the other licensed Rudolph stuff is a bit off model. This figure is pretty darn perfect though.

His fur had to be the hardest part to engineer and still give him working and useful articulation. Major props goes out to Playing Mantis for finding a way to get this done and do it well. He looks right and he’s quite fuzzy indeed.

The likeness here is the same as it was on the regular Ash figure, which isn’t very good. Still if you can deal with the not so great head sculpt, he’s otherwise pretty flawless. He’s decked out in green and red for the holidays, although the red pants are almost a brown color.

Although the scale of the rest of this line is about 4-5 inches, the Bumble is massive. He’s even bigger than Marvel Legends Hulk! I believe they also sold a larger deluxe Bumble, but this guy fits in well with the PVC figures which where I spent most of my money in collecting Rudolph toys.

Accessories:The Bumble only gets his trademark star. Unfortunately it’s kind of odd and can’t really fit on any trees, but he looks good holding it like he’s going to put it onto a tree. I’ve seen some newer version from Forever Fun with a slightly different star that’s gold.

Value:I got this guy for $5! I have no idea what he originally retailed for or I would have listed that price. I’m guessing closer to $10, but on Ebay now you’re likely to pay quite a bit more for this version. I have seen Humble Bumble sets with several figures for about $30-$40.

I love this figure, I think he’s perfect in every way. I can’t find a single flaw and since I paid so little for him, he gets a near perfect rating from me. Hey, I’m probablyly biased, but there is no denying that this is a good toy.

The Bumble is always part of my Rudolph holiday town, which I build each year in different styles. I’ve included some photos of this year’s Rudolph town. Certainly not my best setup, but the Bumble is there.